Judge: Parents bigots for opposing 'gay' lessons

‘And Tango Makes Three’ book about homosexual male penguins who name their chick Tango because ‘It takes two to make a Tango.’

A judge has attacked parents, suggesting they are bigots for seeking to opt out their elementary-age children from a mandatory controversial pro-homosexual curriculum, according to a nonprofit law firm.

The parents were represented in California’s Alameda Superior Court by Pacific Justice Institute. On Dec. 1, Judge Frank Roesch denied a motion to allow them to have their children excused from the lessons.

According to the group, Roesch blasted the parents for seeking enforcement of a provision of the California Education Code that gives parents a right to opt their kids out of health education.

Education Code Section 51240 allows a parent to have a student excused from instruction, “If any part of a school’s instruction in health conflicts with the religious training and beliefs of a parent or guardian of a pupil.”

However, Pacific Justice Institute said Roesch repeatedly insinuated that the parents are bigots and insisted there can be no homosexual indoctrination because, he purportedly argued, people are born that way.

In his opinion Roesch said the opt-out provision in section 51240 “is not reasonably construed to include instruction in family life education, but was intended to be more limited in scope.”

Pacific Justice Institute reported, “The judge equated a view contrary to his own with creationism and called both false.”

The curriculum is in addition to the school’s current anti-bullying program and is estimated to cost $8,000 for curriculum and training. The school decided parents should not be given an opportunity to opt out of lessons that go against their religious beliefs, even though opponents of the program submitted a petition with 468 signatures of opponents of the homosexual lessons.

In kindergarten, children are introduced to “The New Girl … And Me” by Jacqui Robins. The book is about a young girl who is new at a school and strikes up a friendship with another girl after a popular boy refuses to play with her.

In first grade, students read “Who is in a Family?” By Robert Skutch. It explores different types of families. One page states, “Robin’s family is made up of her dad, Clifford, her dad’s partner, Henry, and Robin’s cat, Sassy.”

In a May 3, 2005, National Public Radio interview, Skutch said he wrote the book because his niece and her lesbian partner “decided to have a family.”

He explained, “The whole purpose of the book was to get the subject [of same-sex parents] out into the minds and the awareness of children before they are old enough to have been convinced that there’s another way of looking at life. … It would be really nice if children were not subjected to the – I don’t want to use the word ‘bigotry,’ but that’s what I want to say anyway – of their parents and older people.”

Second-grade students read about two homosexual penguins that raise a young chick in the book “And Tango Makes Three” by J. Richardson and P. Parnell.

3rd grade students will watch ‘That’s a Family’ film

The two male penguins, Roy and Silo, are described as being “a little bit different.”

“They didn’t spend much time with the girl penguins, and the girl penguins didn’t spend much time with them,” the text states.

When the male penguins nurture an egg, it soon hatches. “We’ll call her Tango,” it states, “because it takes two to make a Tango.”

The book declares, “Tango was the very first penguin in the zoo to have two daddies.”

In the third grade, students watch a film called “That’s a Family,” featuring some homosexual couples in addition to traditional families.

According to the lesson plan, it aims to “assist students in developing sensitivity to gay and lesbian family structures” and teach “respect and tolerance for every type of family.”

Fourth graders are required to read an essay titled, “My School is Accepting – but Things Could be Better” by Robert, an 11-year-old who has two lesbian mothers.

They are introduced to terms such as “ally,” “gay,” “lesbian” and “LGBT.”

Teachers are instructed to ask, “How do you think Robert feels when he hears people say things like, ‘this is gay’ or ‘You’re so gay’?”

By fifth grade, students learn to “identify stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.” They are told that “LGBT people have made important contributions within the United States and beyond.”

Teachers are asked to write the acronym LGBT and ask students the meaning of each letter. Students discuss why stereotypes are “incorrect and hurtful” to LGBT people and people with LGBT family members.

The curriculum also provides a list of LGBT vocabulary words for students, including the following: bisexual, transgender, gay, LGBT and lesbian.

According to Pacific Justice Institute, attorneys for the school district have grilled parents in depositions about their religious beliefs, asking numerous questions about church attendance, sermons they had heard against homosexuality and whether they were aware that the Bible had been used to defend racism and oppression.

“We believe that this ruling against parents is inconsistent with the Education Code, and we are looking forward to continuing this battle until opt-out rights are restored on appeal, or the curriculum is changed,” Pacific Justice Institute Chief Counsel Kevin Snider said in a statement.

While the parents say they do not oppose the anti-bullying efforts, they object to the current elementary curriculum that focuses almost exclusively on homosexuality.

Pacific Justice Institute argues that school records released by Alameda Unified School District show bullying based on race and gender is far more prevalent in the district than sexual-orientation harassment.

“Most parents do not want their first through fifth graders bombarded with pro-homosexual messages at school,” Pacific Justice Institute President Brad Dacus said. “If LGBT advocates really want to stop name-calling and bullying, they should start with themselves.”